The Man

Share.

Are Jackson and Levy best left unpaired in this buddy comedy?

By Brent Simon

My review of The Man could merely be written in the form of an angry challenge to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's John Hays, who, in a bizarrely asterisked cover blurb, praises the movie as "uproariously funny," but I'll try to aim for a slightly higher level of discourse. Here goes:The Man is a salt-and-pepper buddy comedy starring Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy. The Man is set in Detroit but filmed in Toronto, something you could glean even if you've never set foot in either city. The Man is the type of movie that happens when all parties involved have nothing better to do. The Man is the type of movie that makes you want to take a nap after viewing because it's so dispiriting that it puts a bullet in the remainder of your day or evening. The Man will be coming soon to a cable channel near you&#Array; and frequently. The Man is so mirthless that even bit player Horatio Sanz &#Array; who for seven years has never kept a straight face through a single Saturday Night Live sketch, and would laugh if a housefly buzzed by &#Array; doesn't even crack a smile. Yes, The Man is many things &#Array; including every bit as repetitive and awkwardly constructed as the first paragraph of this review &#Array; and really none of them are good.That's a shame, too, because on the surface one assumes that the wildly different screen personas of the movie's stars would or could generate some genuine comedic friction. A sort of cop-story inversion of Steve Oedekerk's 1996 film Nothing to Lose, which paired off Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins to comparatively hilarious effect as a bumbling carjacker and straight-laced but rundown businessman who turns the tables on his captor, The Man is a generic and tedious screen exercise in which everyone seems merely to be going through the bare minimum aerobic motions. Scripted by Jim Piddock, Margaret Oberman and Steve Carpenter, the movie trades in every sort of broad cliché and bland, stereotypical dialogue exchange that you can summon to mind. Director Les Mayfield (Encino Man, Blue Streak) certainly does The Man no favors, either, cross-cutting against action and generally failing to find any type of dynamic visual way to convey the story.The film centers around Derrick Vann (Jackson), a belligerent federal agent who, yes, plays by his own rules, evincing his disregard for protocol by wearing Sambas, bullying fellow officers and smacking around informants with phone books and pinning them to chain-link fences with his car. (Ha!) After his apparently crooked partner gets taken down in an illegal arms deal, Vann sets out to track down those responsible and clear his own name from suspicion. Problems ensue when affable Midwestern dental supply salesman Andy Fiddler (Levy), in town for a professional conference, is mistaken by the gun-running baddies during a prearranged drop as a potential buyer for their hot cache. Vann is thus forced to use the talkative and by turns unwitting and unwilling Fiddler as the "face" of his sting operation, with all sorts of mayhem proceeding from there.Problem is, The Man is the type of movie that can't even follow its conceit all the way through, and so it hesitantly takes as its own several wan sketch comedy set-ups &#Array; for example, putting a topless Jackson and Levy in a swimming pool together &#Array; that make no sense within the narrative, working backwards to somehow cram them in. Even here, though, the movie can't muster any laughs, and when it's not busy being stupid (a group of nuns suffer Fiddler's flatulence!) it's at times borderline offensive. Jackson glowers and needlessly beats informants. Levy stammers. Everyone looks bored. Seriously, go rent Nothing to Lose instead.Score: 3 out of 10The VideoThe Man's video transfer is completely fine, though you'll have scant reason to appreciate it. There are no grain or artifact problems, and the 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is more than adequate to enjoy the movie's extremely tight visual palette, seemingly composed for its future home of choice &#Array; on television.Score: 6 out of 10The AudioEnglish language audio presentations include 5.1 Dolby digital and 2.0 Dolby digital tracks, the difference between the two being almost indistinguishable. Foley sound effects and the movie's score are ratcheted up during a few chase sequences, including the aforementioned beatings suffered by Booty (Anthony Mackie), an ebonics-spouting low level street thug who serves as Vann's punching bag. Other elements are fairly non-dynamic, for the most part staying out of the way of the crisply presented dialogue and supposed jokes.Score: 6 out of 10Packaging and ExtrasA parade of mirthlessness continues on a two-minute blooper reel where it seems Levy and Jackson have one of those relationships that end with every call of, "Cut!" A collection of five deleted scenes includes a more exaggerated sequence of Fiddler disembarking from the plane and holding up his fellow passengers by chatting up an airline attendant, a brief clip of him being propositioned in jail by a chubby female inmate ("Wanna do me?") and &#Array; shock of shocks &#Array; one that's actually funny: a sequence in which Fiddler tries to make a money drop in a trashcan, only to find it full and then have to try to discretely stomp it down. No surprise, really, that this didn't make the final cut &#Array; it actually takes a full minute-and-a-half to really set up.A collection of featurettes follow, highlighted by a 12-minute making-of documentary built around a few on-set interviews. A wretched, four-minute clip-fest, billed as "Samuel L. Jackson's Guide to Cursing Like a Bad@#*," contains very little from Jackson, and instead comes off as just embarrassing. Ditto the pointless six-minute featurette on the car Vann drives in the movie &#Array; an '83 Cadillac (changed from a '69 Oldsmobile in the script at Jackson's suggestion). Another six-minute featurette rounds things out, a brief look at the art of the "squib shot" with stunt advisor Kaz Kobielski. Not a good sign when that's the best thing on the disc.Score: 4 out of 10The Bottom LineThe Man is not funny. Did I make that clear enough?